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After graduating from Georgetown University, it troubled me that the lesson I had learned from my thesis on genocide would be lost. I came to the conclusion that with modern communication most genocide was preventable. Within a year I secured an office, a staff, and launched the Center for the Prevention of Genocide.
Within 6 months of opening, the Center had twenty staff, interns and volunteers comprised mostly of University students with degrees in related fields. We developed a simple methodology of tracking the top areas where genocide was likeliest to occur. We made contact with neutral third parties in and near these areas and asked them to contact us if there were indications that massacres were likely.
Three to four times a year, the Center would mail out all of its reports to policymakers on Capitol Hill, at the UN and to concerned governments and media outlets. We also produced a magazine/booklet yearly for bookstores and policymaker reference. Development of credible methods and good relations with policymakers was important if we were going to require action by policymakers on behalf of those in jeopardy.
December 2nd , 2001 the Center received its first message from an ongoing massacre. In the middle of the night, a pastor warned us in an email that Laskar Jihad militia was attacking unarmed Christians in Poso and Tentena, Sulawesi, Indonesia. We confirmed it with the US Consulate on Surabaya and lobbied effectively to have the Bush Administration pressure Indonesian President Megawati to send troops. She did, sending 4,000 and ending the genocide within days. This was the first time in modern history that Indonesia had intervened in an ongoing massacre.
A few months later, two interns, Joanna and Eugene, heard rumor of a man-induced famine in the Nuba mountains, Sudan, where the government was attempting to 'ethnically cleanse' the local tribes from oil concession lands. We confirmed the information and presented our findings to Roger Winters of USAID who prevailed on WFP to deliver tons of sorghum in relief. Most of the lives of the 32,000 people in jeopardy were spared. Tragically, approximately 500 Nuba still died of starvation.
The Center's Board was the same as for Improve the World International the 501(C)3 and included human rights luminaries such as Ambassador John McDonald (IMTD), Bill Douglas (Interim Dean SAIS), John Heidenrich (Author, 'How to Prevent Genocide') and others. The HQ moved from Old Town Alexandria to Rosslyn in late 2002.
We were housed in a building that was slated for demolition in two years and the owners let us use the space at a cost which was a fraction of market value.
The Center sponsored several lecture series' with survivors of genocide telling their stories of survival in a University setting. We partnered with a local TV show to air several guests and lectures. Survivors from the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bangladesh and the Holodomor spoke powerfully about their experiences informing students and faculty of genocides many had never heard of.
The King Street Old Town office was so small, it could not hold the entire staff in spite of being donated another floor. So, some staff would meet regularly at Mishas Cafe (original location). For a year and a half, I slept on a couch in the charity in case a human rights report came in.
The Center went with larger easier to read reports as Ituri and Kivu Provinces D.R. Congo were boiling over. Every report contained specific dates, locations and numbers of people killed in each massacre reported. We used a stricter version of the UN definition of genocide restricting our determinations to killing and three additional factors; it had to be habitual, intentional and the primary characteristic of the abuse.
On several occasions, the Center provided early reports, directly from the field, of Hema and Lendu and other Eastern DR Congo massacres. In one instance in particular, the UN was poised to redraft the mission mandate and equivocated over the use of force to protect civilians. We had word of a breaking massacre and successfully lobbyied the UN committee to change the new mandate to allow UN soldiers to carry and use arms to defend at-risk civilians.
The staff and volunteers occasionally blew off steam and socialized at local restaurants, karaoke bars and cafes.
Former CPG staff went on to successful careers as Deputy Attorney Generals, lawyers, NGO Founders, University Fundraisers, Foreign Service/State Department Officers and more.
For almost two years, the Center included a section in each report which identified exactly the International Laws being broken in case any of the plaintiffs wanted to bring a case. We also conducted a postcard campaign to raise awareness of the sheer volume of massacres in Colombia. Some of these materials will be available on the CPG Country Report page of this website.
I gave testimony confirming the Acholi Chiefs accounts of LRA massacres of their villages in U.S Congressional Sub-Committee hearings co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch. We helped elevate the plight of the Acholi and focus the attention on Joseph Kony's genocidal militia the LRA.
We also warned of dire consequences if Russia dismantled Chechen camps in the middle of winter. Surprisingly, they relented until the Spring.
For our last year and a half we were fortunate to have a stunning 12 floor penthouse view of Georgetown and the Watergate from our soon to be demolished building. We played basketball in the indoor court on the roof in between the hundreds of donated computers we sold and stored there which kept the CPG open for four years.
The Center became possibly the first NGOs to highlight the genocide in Darfur, Sudan with more than seventy Darfurian leaders and their families coming to DC for our march. We also issued a nuclear threat warning between India and Pakistan written by experts who highlighted the lack of protocol and communication made it one of the most dangerous flashpoints in the world. While not genocide, we believed the danger was worthy of attention.
We began receiving lists of the massacred from Darfur, smuggled out of the country and made a determination of genocide late 2003, early 2004. We determined it was genocide and started to get the word out to policymakers. The Center closed its doors in April 2004, due to a lack of funding, but not before enlisting the top Sudan activists Jemera Rone and John Prendergast to take up the Darfurian cause. In their hands, Darfur became a top priority.
Copyright © 2023 The Richard O'Brien Story and Projects - All Rights Reserved. Contact me at obrienrichard01@gmail.com
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